Hunter tactics
Strategies and tactics for the solo Hunter My particular method of soloing goes something like this (situationally it may change a little): * I get at the very edge of my ranged abilities * I cast Hunter's Mark * If the mob is equal or within a ~level of my pet, I send the pet to initiate the fight, otherwise I begin the show with a Concussive shot, as a general rule, and immediately send the pet to intercept and gain aggro. *As the pet gains aggro, I squeeze off a stinging shot such as Serpent Sting, Scorpid Sting or Viper Sting for the DoT effect. The type of Sting used depends upon the effect the Hunter wishes to inflict the mob with. *Slowly and rythmically (a second or so between shots is sufficient, in my limited experience), a pace at which the pet can keep aggro, I begin firing Arcane shot. I'm constantly keeping watch to insure that the pet is alright. If the pet needs it, I cast my Mend Pet on him and go back to plinking at the mob. Once the mob is down around 1/3 HP points, I go ahead and let the next round of shots auto-fire to finish them. I also keep close eye on my mini-map, watching that the immediate vicinity stays free of aggro by using whichever of the Tracking abilities is applicable. If aggro is getting too near us, or there are a lot of mobs beginning to show on the mini-map, I visually check to see if the pet and I need to be thinking of heading for the high-country or not. As I mention above, this plan changes according to situations and circumstances, but that is pretty much how I fight 90% of my fights. Though my methodology may sound repititious and boring to some, since my moves are tailored to each and every fight, the pattern never really becomes a matter of spamming any given 'I WIN!' button like some games I've played. With a Hunter, as much or moreso than any class, one must learn the strengths and weaknesses of the class and be paying pretty close attention when hunting/traveling in unsafe areas. NOTE/Question: I've heard rumors that letting your pet initiate the fight will reduce the experience recieved when the mob is defeated, I will test this when I get a chance, but does anyone else have an answer to this? -- Klocwerk Partial Answer: If you initiate the fight with your pet and do not help, you don't gain experience. Not sure about the Partial XP issue, though. -- Gninja I have found that the only time you suffer any loss in exp is when your pet kills the mob without you doing any damage to it. In this case, I have been awarded no exp. If I hit the mob for any damage at all, however, I am granted the experience for the kill. Full Answer: The mob is only tagged as 'yours' when a party member damages it. Pets don't count (this includes eyes of the beast spell). If you work this through you can predict all the effects. No XP, no loot, can't skin since courpse can't be looted etc. Also people will creep jack you if you send your pet to get started. They wait till the pet damages the mob and claim it for themselves with a low damage instant while your pet kills it for them. Watch for the grey and recall your pet and let the jacker gain aggro and in some cases be crushed by the higher level (to them) mob. --[[User:Dga|Dga] Actually, this was changed in a patch. Your pet actually DOES tag a mob as yours when it attacks, but you still don't get any experience when you don't help it, and can't loot it. If you only hit is just once, you get full XP. I sometimes use this when harvesting tradeskill stuff from low level mobs by letting my pet attack a mob, shoot it once, and then attack a different mob, and then looting both corpses. I think Blizzard did this so you couldn't just set your pet to aggressive, watch a movie, and pick up the loot afterwards. --Nalya My Combat experiences: I tend to use Mark while running into range, Aimed Shot, Pet attack, Concussive shot for meleers or sting for spellcasters, Arcane shot as needed, Concussive shot at the end to stop running. The pet tends to get to the mobs just as the Aimed Shot lands and growls which usually stops the mob there to kill the pet. If I crit the Aimed shot the mob isn't always conviced though. I turn off Bite if I am fighting Yellow+ mobs since it's instant cast and tends to keep the pet low on Focus which could be used for Growl. Green mobs get bite since the damage front load can get them below 50% health before the pet is out of focus. My pet with Growl 3 (level 20) holds aggro even with max DPS shooting except on 29 and some 28 level mobs. So I basically fire arcane as soon as the timer runs out every time. Elites from 26+ are really bad about losing interest in my pet. Does growl not hold aggro well after the 40s? --Dga Slightly different tactic... If the mob is solo, I will mark it and send my pet in to gain aggro. If the pet has any taunting abilities, I will immediately line up an Aimed Shot and fire, followed by a Concussive Shot, then Scorpoid Sting for the DoT. Then I will allow the auto-shot to assist my pet in getting the mob dead in the shortest possible time. About 90% of the time, barring a critical Aimed Shot, I will never draw aggro. If the Aimed Shot does critical hit, the Concussive Shot will slow the mob enough to bring it to me at less than half health at which point I have always been successful at killing it using melee skills. This tactic has been successful for me for mobs up to 110% of my level. -- Nohar FYI: The 1.2.2 patch will "claim" the mob as yours when your pet attacks it, so no more creep jacking. Same will go for the Warlock summons. -- Aquabeast Mark-Trap-Kill: My usual (and mechanical) process for farming (at this time, mountain lions in Alterac Mountains) is to set pet to growl/claw, lay an immolation trap, mark the target, send out the pet while aimed shot is casting, spam concussive, autoshot while the pet regains agro, then switch the pet to growl only and supplement with arcane shot. Save the concussive for runners, and switch to melee if the mob comes too close - at which point the immolation trap chimes in to help. I only melee long enough to wing clip and disengage, then run through the mob, switch to AotH again and finish the mob off with autoshot and arcane shot. Then move to the next target. After a few kills, go back and loot/skin, then move back to a safe place before the mobs start to respawn (they seem to respawn at once for an area, rather than individually on their own timers). -- Feysharnalie Pet combat tactics There are as many schools of thought about this subject as there are Hunters. Some say send the pet to initiate the pull and the fight. Some contend that it's best if the Hunter initiate the fight with a sting or concussive shot. Experiment until you find a methodology that works for your playstyle and use that as your unique method of dealing with Azeroth's enemies. The main thought to keep in mind here are that you need to keep your pet fed, healthy and happy. The more your pet's happiness drops, the less effective they are in combat. An interesting irony here is that the more you fight your pet, the more it's happiness drops as well--you simply can't win with pets, can you? ;) You also need to insure that you've trained your pet every ability you have at your disposal that their mob-type can use. If you haven't learned all the available pet abilites, go to the nearest pet trainer and see if they have any available for you to learn. Then stable your current pet and tame a pet that has the abilities you're missing. Abandon those pets, unstable your main pet and teach them the new abilities. If you follow these simple guidelines, your pet should always be combat-ready. So go out and find a mob, rinse and repeat the strategy and tactics that work for you! Managing your Pet You can instruct your pet in how to act against enemies in three different ways - Aggressive, Defensive or Passive. The Icons for each are found on the right of your pet's skill bar. Extreme care should be used when using Aggressive as your pet will automatically attack any enemies within close range of it. This can result in your pet initiating fights continuously in busy areas before you've had a chance to stop and recover from a previous fight. Using this setting in a party will quickly result in you becoming very unpopular as your pet keeps the fight going before the group can recover from a difficult encounter. Most hunters would not use Aggressive very often, if at all! Defensive is useful when soloing but can also be dangerous, particularly when fighting against ranged enemies. With this setting your pet will attack anything that attacks you first. You should be careful about using this setting in a party as there are often situations where it is better to pick off a ranged attacker from range than to run to it and risk bringing more enemies. A pet chasing down ranged attackers can often draw many more enemies into a fight and so quickly lead in the death of the whole party! Note: On non PvP realms Defensive can result in you being marked for PvP without you meaning to. If you are attacked by a guard of the opposite faction but choose to flee your pet will still return the attack and so you will both be marked for PvP. Passive is a safe setting and probably wisest to use while grouping in a party. Your pet will not attack anything unless you instruct it to. Even if you or it are attacked it will not fight back. It might sound annoying to have to tell your pet to defend you but it means you have total control over where you pet is and can stop it initiating fights which you don't want to get into. You can intelligently set your pet to attack an additional enemy which has just started attacking your healer. Tip: Using the options, set the tilde "~" key, which is left of the number 1 on your keyboard, to the Pet attack command. This way it's easy to quickly tell your pet to attack your current target without even looking at the keyboard. --Sta'rus Traps: Charm or curse? There are four different traps available to the hunter. A trap skill allows you to set a trap on the ground which will stay put for 1 minute, and will activate when a mob comes within range, performing their designated function. Traps CANNOT be placed while in combat, so be sure to prepare your trap before pulling the mob. Traps are a very situational skill, but can be extremely helpful when used correctly. Traps At lvl 16 the hunter gets access to his/her first trap: Immolation Trap. This trap inflicts instant fire damage, as well as fire DoT (Damage over time). It is very useful as an additional source of damage when taking on mobs of a higher level than the hunter, and can contribute significantly to the hunter's DPS at lower levels. Later in the game it becomes less useful, as the damage doesn't scale as well as your ranged weapon and skills. I feel the need to disagree with the assessment that Immolation Trap becomes less useful with time. Although my hunter is only level 29 at the time of my writing this, the increase in efficiency between ranks one and two seemed to scale approprately, and the damage to mana ratio is quite favorable, in my opinion. --Saiph At lvl 20 the hunter gets access to the Freezing trap. This can be very useful for pulling two mobs at once. Place the frost trap, pull the mobs, and one (or both) will get stuck in the frost, allowing you to take care of the other mob in the meantime. Hopefully you'll have finished off the first mob by the time the second one becomes unfrozen. (I haven't gotten this one yet, no first hand experience. someone add? --Klocwerk) Freezing Trap will only effect the first foe that comes across it, and will never affect multiple foes. The first rank will only hold the foe for a maximum of ten seconds, although higher ranks increase this number. Any sort of damage done to the foe (including a DoT such as Serpent Sting, will undo the trap's effect. '' The easiest strategy I've found in using this trap is to place the trap in a straight line between me and the closest foe, shoot an Aimed Shot or Arcane Arrow at it (I'm not fond of either's damage-to-mana ratios, but I digress), and then immediately switch to another foe, and initiate combat with this second foe normally. Another option (which I prefer) is to place the trap to the side of your line between you and your first opponent, pull the first foe, then have your pet engage it as soon as possible (but do the pull yourself, as the second foe will aggro onto the pet if the pet enters the foe's aggro range before you shoot the first target). As soon as your pet has the first enemy's aggro, quickly move yourself so that the freezing trap is between you and your second opponent, so that it will run into it and be frozen. --Saiph'' Freezing trap is also a great tool for taming beasts. Set a trap between you and the beast you want to tame, back up a bit, fire a Concussive Shot, and then begin the Taming. The concussive shot will slow the beast down for a bit (possibly freezing it, if you've got the Improved Concussive Shot talent), and then the Freezing Trap will stop it for another 10 seconds. This way, you'll hardly be scratched at all during the taming process. --Pingbo At level 28, the hunter gains access to Frost Trap. Frost Trap creates a patch of ice around itself when set off by an enemy, slowing the movement speed of all enemies within 10 yards. (I have yet to really find a use for this trap myself, but perhaps I am simply unimaginative. If someone could add to this, I would appreciate it. --Saiph) I've used frost trap on a few occassions simply for mob pulling tests. When in a new area and not sure what I'll end up pulling, I'll place a frost trap behind me. If the pull is too large, I just run, the mobs run through the frost trap and make it much easier for me to escape. More of an additional security thing, especially if the group has ranged attackers or hunters that can cause slowing effects on me. --JRaskell Something I have found it usefull for is when you know that there will be multiple adds (2-3) and need to focus more on a singele add at a time, place it where the tank will be, preventing the adds to make it as quickly to any cloth casters.--Vorash I didn't get a chance in Open Beta to experiment with traps. When I do gain that knowledge, I'll come back here and edit this to include that information, if someone else hasn't already added it by then. -- Arath Trap Tactics Immolation Trap: Immolation Trap is the trap you will most often use while grinding and solo-ing. The standard operating procedure is to lay the trap just outside of the mob's aggro radius and then back up to maximum range. Timed correctly, when you pull the mob it will encounter your pet just after it hits the trap. Immolation is also best used for boss fights in instances, as generally, the more DoTs on a boss the better. Freezing Trap: This trap is used when at least one add is unavoidable. Generally, if you Concussive Shot your main target the add will almost always run over the trap first. In a group, be sure to Hunter's Mark the pull so none of your group members accidentally attack the add. Explosive Trap: This is used in a few situations. Use it if you'd prefer a higher initial spike of damage with a short DoT rather than Immolation's long DoT. Another use is to pre-damage mobs when you have an unavoidable group pull. In groups, it is best used when faced with a large group of grey mobs. Almost always hit Feign Death after the trap is triggered. The textbook example for the proper use of this trap is Herod in the Scarlet Monastery. After he dies, several low-level mobs run into the room. They hit hard, but have glass jaws. An explosive trap combined with another group member's AoE is guaranteed to take them out before they hit anyone. Frost Trap: The frost trap serves the same purpose as most other slowing effects. Generally use it when you're in an instance with mobs that have a tendecy to run, and if a long run will cause them to grab adds. This is often the case with Humanoid mobs. Explosive Traps and Immolation Traps are also useful when fighting Elementals, as elementals generally have heavy armor and are immune to stings. Grouping strategies Hunter's Role in a group A Hunter's role in group is about what one would expect: pull the mob(s) and let the tanks and your pet get and keep the aggro. The Hunter would then move to a position farther away from the mob than their 8 yard limit on ranged attack and help the caster's control and defeat the mob(s). Multiple Hunters If you happen to party with multiple Hunters make sure each of you knows which Sting to use. Each Hunter can have only one Sting active at a time. If you have two Hunters, that's two Stings that can be on the mob. Ask your fellow Hunter to cast one Sting while you cast the other. Both Hunters should fight away from each other so if the mob attacks one of you, the other Hunter can still fire from range. Stacking Stings '' Multiple Hunters can stack stings on an individual target with a few limitations. Get to know your stings and in what situation to best use them. A combination of different stings will stack together however, with the exception of Serpent Sting, the effect of more than one sting of the same type will not stack. Use common sense to work with other hunters for maximum effect. If there are two hunters, designate one hunter to stick to Serpent sting and the other to choose between Scorpid Sting , Viper Sting or Serpent Sting based on the mob being attacked. If your party is engaged with multiple mobs, it's useful to make sure all mobs which are not currently polymorphed, or crowd controlled in some other way, have active Serpent Stings on them. The additional damage adds up very quickly. Remember to " assist" the Warrior or Paladin, if you have one in your group, to ensure you focus your party's firepower on one mob. You can do this by selecting the tank (use the F1-F5 keys to target group members) and then pressing "F". This way, mobs will die faster because everyone is concentrating their firepower on a minimum of targets. Sometimes it is more efficient and expedient for one of the crowd-control classes to root, or otherwise slow down an add's ability to reach the group until tanks are free to deal with it. An assisting tank or other designated group member may be assigned the task of handling adds while the majority of the group continues to follow the MA and cut down the main target(s). If you don't have a pure tank in the group, agree amongst yourselves who to assist and follow the procedure above to insure that everyone correctly assists that character. Although assist nay not seem all that important as a concept at low levels, it's an important habit to train oneself in for later levels, some of which are going to be tough to get through solo. Runners Hunter's are great at dealing damage to mobs that try to run from the fight. Mob flight is a major concern because fleeing mobs may call friends to come help them with the fight. You can simply shoot a fleeing mob (their HPs are so low one or two shots will probably finish them off) or hit it with Concussive Shot to slow it down. If the DoT effect of the Stings and all the rest hasn't killed them by now, Wing Clip them and keep them from running away. Note: Don't forget your pet! If you allow your pet to follow a fleeing mob it can easily bring new mobs into the fight at a time when the group is not ready. You'll need to be able to catch your pet before it does this by telling it to follow you. Shooting on the Run The Hunter can shoot any of his instant cast ranged abilities while running, including Hunter's Mark. If you have to chase a mob or enemy player as they are running away, keep this in mind. Particularly useful is using Arcane Shot to pick off a runner that you're having trouble keeping in range. See Jump Shot and Strafe Shot below. PvP Tactics As an avid PvP Hunter I can say hunters can be a force when used the right way. Never ever melee anyone, tanks and rogues will kill you fast, and casters have ways of keeping you away anyhow. Make use of surprise, trickery and range to kill players up to 5 levels above you. ''When I am hunting horde, I move around alot to find a mark. Then I tell pet to stay. I then move to an advantageous firing location and quickly stealth. Be sure to have Aspect of Hawk activated before you stealth. Use high points such as hills or buildings as firing locations. Anyplace that is hard to reach is perfect. Also use bushes and trees as cover, making yourself harder to pin point. Once your ready, send your pet in. Always let the pet attack first. This way your mark will get your pet targeted and not you. Then start your attack. Keep them dotted and slowed. If they close on you, quickly wing clip and run. Once your far enough away, turn and concuss them again. They wont last long this way. Using this stratagy I have taken high level players without taking a scratch. You wont win every time, but by using a stealthy, sniper like stratagy, you will take full advantage of the hunters strengths while not exposing his weaknesses. Happy hunting'' '''-Kronturai' Tips and techniques (also known as ''The Hunter's bag of dirty tricks) Try to put tips and techniques under the section they most fit with (solo or grouping). Use this section if the tip doesn't really belong in either of those sections. The Jump Shot I read this one from the WoW community forums - I can't link there right now, because the search (and login) are broken as usual. This skill was developed by players of twitch games such as Quake and Unreal Tournament. Basically, you can run faster than you can backpedal. So if a foe is closing on you, turn around and run away. Then pan the camera (you can't do this if you've got smart panning turned on). When you're looking at the foe that you're still running away from, jump and press the right mouse button - this will make you turn around to face the foe. Immediately after you start the jump, trigger your instant cast shot (usually concussive shot), then turn around to keep running away from the foe (I still can't get this right, but at least I'm usually running mostly away, and somewhat across). While in the air, you will continue moving in same direction that you were originally facing. This skill takes a lot of practice - mostly in getting the mouse movement right. You can't use the keyboard to turn while in flight, because you just don't turn fast enough. You have to fling the mouse around a little, but not enough to start a 760 degree turn... It helps to use autorun (cruise control? F12) when doing jump shots. Then your hands will be doing three things - panning the camera, turning your movement/firing direction, and firing instant cast shots. The first two are done by the same hand with the same buttons (left button to pan, right button to turn). Note that you don't have to actually be facing the foe when you fire, so you can start turning before the shot is fired, just as long as the foe is within your 118 degree firing arc. The jump shot is only suitable for situations where you can run through empty territory. Otherwise you're going to experience multiple adds. I have practiced this in another way without the pre look. I have learned how much to pop the mouse around to get me turned enough to squeeze off the shot. i.e. target the mod, run away, jump, move mouse, shoot (arcane shot), move mouse back around to original heading more or less, keep running. Auto run is very handy for this. I think the correct mouse motion can be practised. This can be executed very quickly and with almost no setup. --Dga The Strafe Shot This one from the Wow community forums too. Ditto the reason for not being able to link it. You strafe (run sideways) as fast as you run. You can also shoot up to 89 degrees away from front and centre. So what you do is, turn to get the foe to your left or right, then strafe in the opposite direction. Release instant casts at whim. I find that this works best when you don't have smart panning turned on (ie: you want to camera to stay pointed where you point it, regardless of which direction you're facing or running). You cannot use autorun when doing strafe shots, so your hands are doing four things, namely: strafing, panning the camera, turning to keep the enemy within your firing arc, and firing instant cast shots. However, the strafe shot doesn't require the precision mousing essential for the jump shot - it's possible to strafe without using the mouse, as long as you don't need to be looking at the foe to target them. As per the jump shot, the strafe shot is only suitable for situations where you can run through empty territory. The strafe shot is useful for getting a mob to turn back around - strafe shot the foe while running through your tank, for example. See also: PvP for further information on player-versus-player strategies and tactics. =Working with Other Classes= Things Hunters want Non-Hunters to know Things Non-Hunters want Hunters to know When you're grouping up, please do not assume that you will be pulling. Mark the target that is being tanked rather than aggroing another mob and forcing the healer to spend mana healing two targets instead of the ideal one. Incidentally, this also builds up almost twice as much aggro, putting the healer in danger of getting a few rips in his robes. Go back to Hunter Category:Hunters Category:Tactics